


can i be the only hope for you?

by mercurybard



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Community: au_bingo, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-11
Updated: 2011-04-11
Packaged: 2017-10-17 22:44:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/182112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mercurybard/pseuds/mercurybard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Did you take the money?” "Yes."</p>
            </blockquote>





	can i be the only hope for you?

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Not mine; not claiming their mine; I'll put them back where I found them when I'm done. Title from a MCR song (are you surprised?) Written for my au_bingo card. Prompt - Other: Criminals

“Did you take the money?”

There were two possible ways this could go: if Chin Ho Kelly hadn’t taken the money and the HPD had bounced him off the force on a bum rap, then Steve could offer him the chance at redemption. If he had taken it, then…well, Commander McGarrett had spent enough time in Special Forces to understand that sometimes you did things that weren’t very nice because in the end they were for the greater good. The governor had given him a blank check to run this task force as he saw fit—she wouldn’t be happy at him putting known criminals on the payroll, but she’d have to live with it.

Or revoke his mandate, but she was too desperate to have her island cleaned up to do something as foolish as that.

Besides , this was Chin Ho Kelly, the legendary quarterback (at least until Steve had come and blown through all his records like a hollow point through center mass)—you didn’t get that kind of rep on the football field without putting in more than your fair share of sweat and blood. This was Officer Kelly, one of his father’s first and finest trainees. There were a lot of things Steve could say about his old man but a bad judge of character wasn’t one of them. Plus, anyone who could spend a full shift trapped in the same patrol car with the senior McGarrett and come back for more the next day had mental endurance (and a certain masochistic streak).

And if Chin had been taking payoffs, then why the fuck was he working as a security guard for the tourist bureau? Either he was a lousy criminal (not likely) or there was more going on here than a mere corruption case.

“Excuse me?”

Steve swiveled in his seat to look Chin Ho in the eye. “Did you take the money?”

There was a pause as Chin studied him. Steve doubted anyone in the room was breathing—the tension was too thick for anything as mundane as oxygen to intrude—he knew he wasn’t. Then, “yes.”

*

They needed an outsider—this state was way too small for undercover work—and Chin said, “I have a cousin.”

Steve snorted. Chin Ho was related to half the island. The majority of his cousins were cops, but there’s the fair share of seedier tradesmen mixed in. Chin’s problem was that the family has forever maintained a clear line: you were either a cop or a crook. There was no crossover. No place for a dirty cop.

He should have put more trust in Chin. The cousin surfed like a pro, had a mean right hook, and could probably pull off “easy prey” with the right dress and a little bit of coaching.

The way her face lit up at the sight of Chin Ho was an epiphany. Steve tried to be surreptitious as he checked her knees for the tell-tale surgery scars but knew both Chin and Danny will think he’s admiring Kono’s physical assets (of which there are plenty, but he’s a professional). The marks were small but present, shiny and pale against the warm bronze of her skin. A career-destroying blown knee usually translated to a torn ACL.

Steve had gone to school with a girl who’d done the exact same thing, only her family hadn’t had insurance. No money for a doctor, surgery, physical therapy…she’d just hobbled around on crutches as the muscles in her leg and a chance at a softball scholarship wasted away. Last time he’d seen her, she’d been working the graveyard shift at a convenience store—the first job she’d been able to keep, she’d admitted, because the owner let her sit on a stool when she was behind the register.

Pro surfing sponsors were only too quick to drop a kid whose career wiped out. It didn’t take a genius to figure out where those drug dealers’ money went, and from the look in Chin Ho’s eyes as Kono stabbed her board into the sand and wrapped her lanky arms around him, it was worth all the infamy to give her the chance to reinvent herself.


End file.
